Effect of spherical alumina crystalline phase content and particle size distribution polydispersity on the properties of silicone rubber composites

High loading of thermally conductive fillers for enhancing thermal conductivity (TC) conflicts with proper rheological viscosity in excellent thermal interface materials (TIMs), which remains a significant challenge. The physical properties (crystalline phase, particle size and distribution, etc.) of thermally conductive filler are the base of the high load in the polymer. In this paper, the α-phase content of spherical aluminum (S–Al2O3) increases after calcination, leading to the viscosity of composites increasing sharply but was only slightly improved for the TC. The polydispersity of the S–Al2O3 particle size distribution was regulated to fill the silicone rubber under the premise of controlling the same average particle size, crystalline phase content and filling amount. Results indicated the viscosity of the sample with a polydispersity value of 0.74 was 41.21 Pa s at a shear rate of 10 s−1 at 66 vol%, which was 87.7% lower than that of the sample with a polydispersity value of 0.48. And the viscosity difference became more prominent with the increasing filling amount. However, the difference in TC between several groups of samples with different polydispersity is insignificant at 60–67 vol%, which provides practical, theoretical guidance for achieving controllable viscosity and developing low-viscosity TIMs in the processing process.